My Application Experience

I have recently had a few people ask me about my application process to come here to Aston University. It was over a year ago, so I might miss a few things, but from what I can remember it was a fairly easy and simple process.

To apply for any program at any University in the UK you have to go through this UCAS system (www.ucas.ac.uk). It's basically like a centralized online application that you fill out regardless of the university or program you are applying to. The UCAS application reminded me a lot of the OUAC (Ontario University's Application Center) application that I filled out to apply for my initial undergraduate degree. Basically on the application there is the typical information about yourself, name, age, address, etc. Then they also ask about your education background which is all in drop down menus, so for an international student I found that I was constantly clicking "other" and then typing the information in. If I remember correctly I indicated my high school diploma, my BSc, and my opticianry diploma. For each I also had to click "other" and type in the name of the institution where I received the credential and then put in my overall GPA (as a percentage) that I had at each institution. Initially it seemed odd that they didn't want my transcripts or anything, but a week or two after I submitted my application all of the schools I applied to e-mailed me personally and requested that I e-mail a copy of my transcripts and also send them an original.

I can't remember for sure but I think there was also a tiny section to put in your work and volunteer experiences, but if I remember correctly there was very little room to write your duties (like 100 characters/experience). With the lack of space in this section, I tried to compensate by indicating some of the most important experiences I had gained in my personal statement.

There was also a section where I had to write a little personal statement about myself (I believe I had about 500-1000 words to basically say why I wanted to study optometry, why in the UK and indicate any experience I currently had). Fortunately for me it was fairly easy since I had already written about 10 different personal statements when  I originally applied to the North American Optometry Schools.

I also had to get an academic reference (which again is the same as when applying to any North American optometry school), but the difference here was that the reference was to do it electronically in my on-line application. This could be tricky, but so what I did was I just got my reference to write it and e-mail it to me, but if your reference doesn't want you to see what they wrote then you basically have to have your application complete and then log in and have them copy and paste the reference and then submit the application for you.

The application allows you to apply for up to 5 schools, so I had to choose which five of the 8 in the UK I wanted to apply to. I ended up applying to Aston, Cardiff, Bradford, Ulster (in Northern Ireland) and Glasgow (in Scotland). Out of the out of the schools I applied to I found that they all communicated with me differently (some by post/mail, via e-mail, and even by phone) and all to different extents (I heard from Aston every few weeks while Glasgow I only heard from once). After I applied I checked my e-mails and also the UCAS website (which has a section that keeps you informed of your application status) daily to see if there were any changes to my application, and I ultimately found out that the UCAS website was where I noticed any changes first (but they e-mailed me as soon as they made the status changes to my application). If I remember correctly it ultimately it took about a month or two before I heard back from any of the schools. After about two months I had been given an offer to three of the places I had applied to (two conditional offers and one unconditional offer), Ulster had called to set up a phone interview, and I had not heard anything from Glasgow. I was finishing my last year in Opticianry school when I applied, then two of my offers were on the condition that I complete my Opticianry course (which I ended up doing in April 09, a few months before the UK classes began in September/October 09). I ultimately decided to accept Aston, no matter what Ulster or Glasgow would ultimately decide.

During the whole process I was kind of surprised that Ulster was the only one that had actually wanted to do an interview (over the phone), since in North America, all of the Optometry schools like to do an interview. Another thing that surprised me a bit was that there was no standardized admissions test (like the Optometry Admissions Test - OAT - required in North America). When the schools e-mailed me asking for my transcripts I offered them all my OAT scores, but none of the schools I applied to wanted/needed them (although I think City University in London likes to see your OAT scores).  

To come to the decision to attend Aston over the others was a hard task, especially since I was not able to actually go to any of the campuses or towns and see them for myself. It also didn't help that all the schools syllabus were all essentially the same and all appeared to offer the same services, courses, and experiences, but I still had to make a choice. Ultimately there were several factors I looked at to come up with the decision to come to Aston. For starters I looked at how the school and Optometry/Life Science departments did in the various league tables (such as: www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide, www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/good_university_guide, www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8727). I also considered the service I recieved during the whole application process as some communicated with me more (like Aston and Cardiff) unlike others where I heard very little from them (like Glasgow). As well Aston University has a day hospital on campus where they preform day surgeries such as laser and cataract surgeries. I also liked the idea that Birmingham is the 2nd largest city (next to London), and its known as a working class city, so I figured that I would be more likely to see more pathologies here than in any of the other smaller cities (yet I have since found out that during your pre-registration year/internship you don't stay in the city you have studied in, instead you can basically go anywhere in the UK). Another main reason why I ended up choosing Aston, was because I wanted a smaller campus (since it would have more of a family/friendly atmosphere) and it is in the centre of the town, so grocery stores and banks are only a few minutes away (which was important since I didn't want to have to take the bus or a taxi to go grocery shopping). It also helped that Birmingham is centrally located, so it's very easy to travel by train anywhere you want in the UK (less than 2hrs by train to anywhere like London, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool, Cardiff, etc.), and it also has an international airport, so I can get direct flights home or to Europe. All in all there were many factors that I considered before coming to the conclusion that Aston was the best school for me (yet to be honest Cardiff was a close second, but I didn't like it's location, lack of direct flights to Canada, campus size and the conditional offer). I am extremely happy about my choice, as now I am in the UK and have talked to students from all of the other optometry faculties, I have found that Aston is indeed the best fit for me.

After rereading this I realize that it sounds sort of biased to Aston (which I guess makes sense since I am here), but my intention, when going through how I choose which school to attend, was to show some of the factors that I considered when choosing which school to attend.

I hope this helps anyone who is thinking of applying or has already applied and if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment.

Jeff